Hammond gazette. [volume], August 03, 1864, Image 1

About Hammond gazette. [volume] (Point Lookout, Md.) 1862-1864

Image provided by: University of Maryland, College Park, MD

                
HANMOND A EATRPTR
YOL. 2NO 38 POINT LOOKOUT, MD., AUGUST 3. 1864. _WHOLE NO. 90.
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OUR COUNTRY.
; It is all ours :
Ours from the placid western sea
To the emerald castern slopes ;
Ours by our fathers’ history.
Ouis by our children’s hopes.
It is all ours :
Ours by the home that deck the fand,
Ours by the pathway trod ;
Ours by the ages’ stern demand,
Ours by the gift of God.
It is all ours :
Ours by the patriot’'s holy love,
Ours by his deathly throe;
Ours by the starry flag above,
Ours by the blood below.
Itis all ours :(
Ours by the Freeman's title deed
To the land of liberty ;
Qurs for the freeman’s sacred creed,
Qurs for humanity.
ssoo G Q) et o
THE BLOCKADE-RUNNER.
‘ Now, Lieutenant, the yarn,’' said I, as I
filled my can. 3
“Yes, Lieutenant, and a tough one,”’ cried
Jerry Bloom, the smallest midshipman in the
United States service; and a dozen more voices
clamored in, impaticnt for the promised yarn.
A heavy sca was running ;. night had fallen ;
we were ofl’ watch, and snugly stowed between
decks, with our legs under the gun-room table
and a black bottle in our midst, and—jollier
still—Lieutenant Bractaut had promised a yarn.
A smooth tongue of his own had that gentleman,
and a fertile brain withal. His stories were the
delight of the gun-~room. His heart was as
brave and strong as his appetite for grog, aud
every one loved him. He filled another glass,
looked musingly at the oscillating lautern above
our heads, and then made a beginniug :
‘lt was not in these days of iron pots, cheese
boxes, and steam-engines, you must know,”
said he; ‘“but on the dear old frigate Florida—
requiescal in pace !—without her mate before a
stiff breeze, and with more rats in the hold than
in a North Sea whaler. We were the flag-ship
of the African squadron. Prize-money was
scarce, and the days infernally hot ; when, just
as the day dropped, at the close of September,
we were overjoyed to hear tidings of—
¢ All hands on deck if you want a share in
this prize!”’ bawled the bLoatswain down the
companion-way ; and we ungraciously tumbled
up, snapping Bracetaut’s yarn without com
punction, for we had become greedy for plunder
on board the Petrel, and relinquished even our
grog for the hope of a prize.
¢t Where is she ?"’
‘‘ What is she?”’
“] don't see her.”
“There she is in the sou’ west,’’ said the cock
swain, pointing with his spy-glass.
¢By Jove, a steamer, too !"’ cried Bracetaut,
delightedly.
(TRUTH, JUSTICE, MERCY,—UNION, LIBERTY, COUNTRY. |
““The Great Eustern, stuffed with cotton to |
her seruppers.’’ suggested Jerry Bloom, dancing |
a hornpipe; and every one e¢lse had some sur- |
mise to put forth us to the character of the strange l
craft.
** Bracetaut is right,"’ said the captain, who |
had been studying her intently with his telescope ;
‘“*she’s a steamer, and a big ‘un. But she's not
coming out; she's meking for the Lights with !
her best foot foremost.”’ }
We were glad to hear it; for even cotton l
could be foregone for the sake of English rifles, f
hospital stores, and ariuy stufis. We cracked ;
on more steam, unfurled (he top-gallauts, and ;
made all preparatious for a short chase. We |
had been to Philadelphia for coal, and were still '
fifty knots from our old blockading station on |
the North Carolina coast. to which we were re- l
turning. There wus a heavy sea trom the tem- |
pest ot the day before; but the sky was clondless '
and the moon unusually bright, and our craft
was the swiftest in the squadron; so that, with
so much sea-room, we had little doubt of over
hauling the stranger before she could reach the
the protecting guns of Fort Macen. A mere
speck at first, the olject of our attention grew
rapidly bigger as we sped on under the extra
head of steam and the straining top-gallants.
She enlarged against the sky as big as a whale,
and in a few moments we distinguished the
column of black smoke which her low chimneys
trailed against the <ky; but she seemed to have
little canvass stretehed. Indeed the gale was
yet 8o strong that any cxtensive spread of sail §
was imprudent.,
“ See what vou make of her, Bracetant,”’ said
the Captain, hauding his telescope to the weather
worn seaman. ‘] would be surc that she is
none of ourown.’’
“ Clyde-built all over,”” mused the Lieuten- |
ant, with his eve to the tube. “No one but a ‘
cockney could have planted her masts; and her
jib has the Bristol cut. She sees you, and is
doing her best. [ doubt if you catch her.”’
“‘The h—ll we won't! Let out th@ studdin’
sails! trim the jib!"’ roared the commander
through his trumpet. *“I'll spread every rag
if we scrape the sky. More head if possible,
Jones,”’ he added ; and the engincer went below
to see what counld be done.
The-gale was strong, and her head of steam
was already great; but we soon seemed to leap
from crest to crest under the stimulus of replen
ished fires, and the masts fairly bowed beneath
their press of canvas. Everybody was agc.)g
with excitement, and half the seamen were lln
the rigging with pecring eyes and noisy specula
tion as to the vessel and her contents.
Try her with the big bow-chaser, Cap,"’
suggested the Lieutenant; and the order was
Im&e‘;ir:la!tel,‘yvg::c‘llxm huge piece, as we quiveyed
on the summit of a lofty wave, and the rushing
bolt struck phosphor from a dozen crests ere its
course was lost in the distance.
‘‘No go! it's a good three miles,’ growled
Captain B——, measuring the interval once
more with his glass.
“Let me try,”” said Bracetant, quictly taling
his stand behind the gun, which was now being
charged anew, and carefully adjusting the
SCrews,
Again the sullen thunder shouted from the
port, and we marked the ball by its path of
fire.
“ Gone again !’ grumbled the skipper. We're
paving the floor of the sea with— Ha!”
For an instant the messenger had vanished
like its predecessor ; then, far away to the south,
there sprang a fountain of spray-—its last dip in
the brine—and the mizzen-mast of the strangor
snapped short off at the cross-trees, and dragged
a cloud of useless canvas down her shrouds.
‘“‘Brave shot '’ exclaimed the Captain. *“Try
again, Lieutenant.”
‘¢ Try. try again,''' sang that devil of a
middy, Jerry Boom, renewing his hornpipe to
the terror of the cockswain's bunions.
But the rigging of the stranger suddenly
grew black with men, the broken spars were
cleared away as by magic, another sail pufled
out broadly from her foretop to make up for the
defrauded mizzen-mast, and even as we gazed a
strain of band-music came floating over the sea,
with the ‘‘ Bonny blue flag’’ for its burden.
‘““She’'s telling her name,’”’ said Bracetaut,
laughing.
* But she's going to kick us,"’ cried Jerry, as
a long tongue of flame leaped from the stranger’s
stern ; and the rolling thunder of her gun came
to us almost simultaneously with the ball,
which whistled through our tops, letting down
a heavy splinter on the cockswain’s head, who
dropped like a dead man, but was only stunned
It was evident that the stranger was plucky,
and not to be taken alive. We still worked on
her with our bow gun, seldom doing much dam
age, but with the best of intentions; while she
kicked off the point of our bowsprit with provo
king case, and burnt an ugly hole through our
main-top sail.
“By Jingo! she’'s growing saucy,’’ said Cap
tain Be=—. ¢ Now let me have a shy;'’ and
grasping the piece with a practised hand, he
swiftly adjusted it.
““Huzza! I told you so! Clean through her
poop!”’
Sure enough the shot struck her after-bul
warks, and must have played hob with the chan
deliers in the cabin.
Just wait till we can give her a broadside,’”’
added the winger of the bolt, rubbing his hands
good-humoredly.
““ We mustn’t wait too long, then,’’ said the
cool Lieutenant, * for I see the Look-out-Lights.
In half an hour we shall be under the guns of
Fort Macon.”’
He pointed over the side as he spoke, far
down the western verge, to a faint, lurid glim
mering scarcely brighter than the many stars
that surrounded it, but with the hazy lustre
which there was no mistaking.
i The rebels are reported to have destroyed the
lanterns,’’ said I suggestively.
{CONTINUED ON FOURTE FAGE |